Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research

Meta-Analysis for the Social Sciences

Instructor(s):

Meta-Analysis is a set of tools for making sense of large amounts of sometimes inconsistent conclusions from original research. The tools of meta-analysis can help to improve scholarship, ensure more accurate tests of theories, provide clearer and more authoritative advice for policy and management, and ultimately contribute to the wider knowledge base of public management and policy and the social sciences more broadly.

These lectures will give an overview of the six-stage process for conducting a meta-analysis which consists of Scoping, Literature Search, Data Coding, Calculating and Combining Effect Sizes, Explaining Differences in Effect Sizes Across Original Studies, and Identifying Areas for Further Research.